Prince William’s 'secret meeting' with Kate Middleton long before they started dating
The Prince and Princess of Wales' love story famously began at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. The couple met during their first year when they were both living at St Salvator's Halls of Residence and would later go on to live with one another.
While the pair have now been married for 13 years and share three children, it seems they may have crossed paths many years earlier, according to a royal expert. Vanity Fair’s Royal Correspondent and best-selling author Katie Nicholl, claims Prince William may have first caught Kate's eye when their schools' hockey teams played each other.
The young royal, then nine, was a student at Ludgrove Prep School and his teammates went to Kate's school - St. Andrew's Prep - for a match
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In her book, Kate: The Future Queen, Nicholl writes: "Although she wasn't especially interested in boys, the arrival of one particular young man had caught her attention.
"Nearby Ludgrove Prep school would often play matches against St. Andrew's Prep, and there was much excitement when Prince William, a left back on Ludgrove's Colts team, came to St. Andrew's to play a hockey match when he was nine years old.
"William, like Kate, loved sports and was one of the best hockey and rugby players in his year. Of course, the arrival of the prince generated a flurry of excitement."
After the couple spent their first year living on the university campus, they decided to live at 13A Hope Street for their next year with two friends, Fergus Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale.
They then chose to move to Balgove House at Strathtyrum for their third and fourth years at university. It was a sprawling private estate located just outside of St Andrews. The estate is owned by wealthy landowner Henry Cheape, William's distant cousin and a close friend of the Royal Family.
The rural home was made safe for the young couple to live in as unmarked police cars patrolled the estate and the house itself was set behind a large wall and had bomb-proof doors and windows.
Despite the various security precautions, Kate and William reportedly loved to entertain their many friends at the property – so much so that they installed a champagne fridge.
